


More Time Together

by peccadilloes



Series: The Big Ship [1]
Category: Velvet Goldmine
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 02:16:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17051171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peccadilloes/pseuds/peccadilloes
Summary: On the rooftop, Curt and Arthur talk.





	More Time Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegirlwiththemouseyhair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththemouseyhair/gifts).



> Wow, ty so much bud for um bringing velvet goldmine back into my present. It has been a TIME, & I'm very moved by it and by this ship.
> 
> "I wanna be your dog" on repeat

"Sure, another way to look at 'The Ballad of Maxwell Demon' is that it's a rock opera entirely ahead of its time. There will be imitations, any number of them. Some of them will be as good as Brian, but most won't even come close.  
  
"I don't know about you, kid, but when I hear the opening notes or play them on my guitar, the whole world lights up. Turns blue and green and yellow. It sparkles for me. I can see whole universes of color in there, and that's just one song. I don't know if he'll ever come back onstage with me or just resurface somewhere as someone else.  
  
"That's what you have to do to survive in this life, and a lot of us won't make it. He might not even make it another five years--ten if he's lucky. That's how you know the difference between them and us. We won't be alive and they'll be holding onto images of us. They'll be quoting our poetry. They'll take our words and style and forget about us. All my music. All your hopes and dreams and ideas. They're already gone. You've lost them already. I can see it in your face. You had to change your idea of what was possible. I did, too.  
  
"It doesn't matter though. What matters is this moment, this fragment of us that somehow might break through to the future, so they can look back and see us telling them it's going to be all right, even if it isn't. Those of us who come after us, if they can even recognize us for who they are.  
  
"I can't tell you it's gonna be okay. My parents, my family, my brother--they were all fucked up. It's nothing new. I bet your parents are the same way. You have any siblings?"  
  
Arthur shakes his head.  
  
"You're living with a band or a fan or you're out on the street. I get it. We've all been there. I'm there half my life and otherwise I'm onstage or in a basement bar." Curt raises his beer and takes a long drink.  
  
Arthur does, too.

"That's the dream. It's what Brian came looking for. It wasn't me. It was my--It was the fact that I'm a gay man, and I don't care. My fans don't care. They all want to fuck me.  
  
"Brian, too. His music is beautiful. It's pretty. It's perfect. You can just sink into it and live your life in his world. But he's a terrible lay, and I don't trust his manager. Brian when he was around was always trying to get on top of you and tell you who he was. He isn't confident in himself. He wasn't willing to get what he really wanted out of me--  
  
"And that's how most of my fans are. They wouldn't meet me up here in the right way at the right the right time, so nobody notices where we are or that we're not downstairs at the party or that we're together. They wouldn't know what to do. Brian sure as hell didn't. Fuck.  
  
"You don't look like you're wearing a costume. You came as yourself, and here you are. Here I am. I don't know you. I don't know how old you are or who you are or what you want from coming up here, what kind of feeling you followed."  
  
"I had a button," Arthur says. "It may have been more than one. I had a few buttons, and I want to interview you. I want to be a journalist. I want to publish articles about you in the _Rolling Stone_ magazine--"  
  
"I already have a writer at _Rolling Stone_ , kid."  
  
"You don't have me," Arthur says.

"Should I?" Curt says.

"You followed a feeling, too."

"Maybe you just wanted to see what it would feel like if I got any closer to you."

"It feels like this," Arthur says.

"If you knew me for years and spent all that time with me wanting you, wanting to know everything you know about yourself and then watching you learn the rest of who you are. That's a life," Curt says.

"It could be me with you instead of anybody else."

"Me cutting records, encouraging you to grow into yourself."

"I'll be writing stories about music for the papers." 

"I don't know anything about you, but I would listen if you told me."

"Would you make me breakfast?" Arthur says.

"Would you want me to?" Curt says.

Arthur nods.

"American breakfast," Curt says.

"Where do you live?"

"New York. I have an apartment in New York, but I'm still finishing the tour here in Europe. Jack Fairy and I were just in Berlin doing a few shows with my band. I have a friend here in London, and I thought I'd stay a few days with her. Do you know Brian's ex-wife, Mandy?"

"I know the Flaming Creatures," Arthur says.  
  
"Showy gentlemen. The real deal. I met them earlier. "  
  
"They had buttons, too, before we left the flat. They kept interrupting me while I was putting the color in my hair."  
  
"You're they're roommate?"  
  
"I am."  
  
"Let's stay here a while. I can go get my guitar and bring it back up here. I could play for you. Will you wait for me?"  
  
"My friends won't miss me yet."  
  
"I'll be quick."  
  
"I'll be up here, on the buttons."  
  
"I'll be right back. See you soon."  
  
Curt returns with his guitar a long moment later. He sits some short distance from Arthur. "For me 'Maxwell Demon' is the kind of song you can hear already in your mind. Every note that comes next, right as you're about to make the sound with your fingers--you hear it." He plays the opening riff.

"What about 'Hot One'?"

"That's a piano song."

"So play the rest of this one," Arthur says. He scoots closer to Curt.

"Got tired of wasting gas living above the planet," Curt sings quietly. "Mister, show me the way to earth."


End file.
